Trent Lott is entering his 33rd year of service in the United States Congress on behalf of the people of the State of Mississippi. A champion of a strong national defense, he remains dedicated to encouraging economic growth and protecting Americans' economic security.

Before being elected to the Senate in 1988, he served sixteen years in the House of Representatives. He is the first member of Congress ever elected party whip in both houses. He served as the Senate majority leader 1996-2002. In the 109th Congress, Senator Lott chairs the Surface

Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee within the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which oversees improvements in the administration of highway, rail and maritime transportation and safety. He also chairs the Rules and Administration Committee and the Joint Committee on Printing. In 2004, he was elected chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee for Inaugural Ceremonies, becoming the first Mississippian to oversee the inauguration of the President of the United States. Senator Lott is a senior member of the Finance Committee, which oversees social security, tax and health care policy, serves on the Joint Committee on Taxation, and is a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence

Lott was born on October 9, 1941, the only child of Chester and Iona Lott, in Grenada. His family moved to the port city of Pascagoula, where his father was a pipefitter and his mother taught elementary grades, Trent Lott attended a public school that would later bear his name. He received his Bachelor of Science in Public Administration in 1963 and his Juris Doctorate in 1967 from the University of Mississippi in Oxford.